Reminiscing

A dear friend of my hubby and mine is getting married in the next several months, November actually. Over the last few weeks since she became engaged, I have had the honor of sharing some of my wedding memories, vendors, and experiences with this friend. One of the things she asked me about today was our wedding website.

October 2006 (when we became engaged), the hubby and I put together a wedding website through www.weddingwindow.com, We thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with family and friends, as well as the information and story sharing ability it gave us. In addition, after all the work we put into the site and updating it reguarly, we were able to get a cd copy of our site before it went out of comisision online. I have looked over site today and want to share some of the stories we wrote there. My hubby and I just reread them and it put super smiles all over our faces. I hope you enjoy. These are simply copied and pasted from the site - so this was written over 2.5 years ago.

Our Story

How We Met:
The First Meeting

Ironically we officially met through a mutual love of the same sport... Soccer.

"Somehow" we ended up on the same coed soccer team. The first time we met, it was the first game of the season. Kelly and a couple other "new" guys to the team were on the sidelines. I was still recovering from a hairline fractured ankle (imagine that), and was wearing an ankle brace, plus had my ankle taped for good measure.

Kelly took one look at me after introductions and said, "Nice Cankle"

Needless to say, it wasn't love at first site or first words...

How We Started Dating:
The way we got to know each other...

About a month or so after our first meeting, Kelly and I began to talk a bit through emails, as he sent out the weekly reminder of our coed soccer schedule. The friendly banter began one day after I returned from a family vacation, and Kelly's weekly game reminder stated something along the lines of: "P.S. And Heather if you show up with a tan better than all of us, I"ll kick you in your good ankle". I replied, "Is that a threat?" To which, he in his quick-witted nature said, "Nope, because this is on paper."

The next week after a game, many of our teammates went to hangout. Both Kelly & I went with the group and began to talk more in-depth after figuring out that Laura Reddin was a mutual friend of ours, and we actually "knew" one another through her, without having ever met each other. Through the events of the night, we ended up spending quite a bit of time together and discovered that we lived in the same neighborhood, thus making the suggestion that we should carpool to games.

Over the next few weeks, Kelly and I rode with one another to games, and one night he tore his MCL, thus giving me an excuse to be at his house often to "help" him, and continue to get to know him better.

How we began dating:

One night soon there after his MCL tear, Kelly and I went to the loop. Upon our return to his house, I got my stuff together to leave, and said goodnight, as Kelly "crutched" me out towards my car. We said goodnight, with a hug, and I made my way to the car to go home. When I got to the car, I realized that I had forgotten my keys inside (kind of necessary to drive home). Therefore, I turned around, Kelly still standing outside, went back inside, grabbed my keys, and headed back out to go straight to the car.

Kelly stopped me, "Heather, can I tell you something?" To which I smartly replied, "I don't know, can you?" (not the correct response there, lol)

Kelly then went on to tell me that he liked me... ... ... ... ... ... I was definately interested, attracted, but still unsure, and kind of scared... 2 days later (Thursday), we began dating.

How Heather Freaked Out:
Disclaimer:

Okay, so to be honest, I was going to leave this part of the story out... but Kelly is correct in reminding me that this a necessary piece of our little puzzle. Plus it gives him definite props for being a man & putting me into my place. (did I just say that?) Or maybe, I meant it exemplifies his faith and believing that this was right and I was just being a freak - imagine that.

The attempted break up:
One week into our relationship, a week into a very good relationship, all going well, really well... I freaked out - can't explain it any other way.

On a Thursday (exactly 1 week into our relationship), I had an intense unsettled feeling like something was wrong. I went to bed with the feeling Wednesday late night, and woke with it Thursday morning, and it stood all day. I can't explain this well enough to make sense, because it really doesn't... I felt smothered, like things were going too fast (we hadn't even kissed, how could it go any slower?!), I felt my independence had been stripped, I felt unsettled, uneasy, and couldn't pinpoint why. My immediate idea was that there must be something wrong with the relationship. Is there a reason I shouldn't be with this man... ... ... ... NOTHING - I couldn't think of an excuse. But the unsettledness was there anyway... I ignored Kelly all day in an attempt to understand... until we finally spoke that night, at which point he knew something was wrong!

I went to his house that night with the decision that I couldn't do "this", I couldn't date him, I wasn't ready, and I knew I cared for him already & would probably hurt him, something I didn't want to do. So I went to say, "I just want to be friends." The talk began, I verbally vomited all the craziness in my head, probably talked in circles forever... and then finally said my piece, "I just want to be friends".

Kelly looked at me with those deep eyes, we sat there in silence for some time (felt like forever to me)... and finally he opened his mouth to reply... He said: "Well, Heather, I don't want to be your friend. I want to date you." He went on to describe how I didn't have a real reason for not wanting to date, I couldn't give him ANY reason, except some "feeling" I had... how was he suppose to go off of that? He then told me that he knew he was suppose to pursue me as more than a friend, but if that wasn't what I wanted, then we'd have to part ways for awhile before a friendship was ever possible.

Then and there, I knew I hated the idea of not having Kelly in my life in some form, and we hashed things out for awhile, and decided... let's keep giving this a try.

I praise the Lord for giving Kelly the strength, faith, and courage to say those words to me that night. Had he folded and said "okay" to me, as I thought I wanted, I don't know if I would be writing these words today. God gave Kelly faith that it was time to take a stand, guard his heart, and take the chance. Those "harsh" words, "Heather, I don't want to be your friend", are now some of the most beautiful words ingrained in my memory.